Unlocking weapons in Helldivers 2 can only be done by spending your Medals on the ones found in Warbonds, whether free or Premium. These Warbonds effectively act as the game's equivalent of battle passes, and with Helldivers 2 bringing out a new one every single month, it means that players can expect to see a steady stream of new weapons entering the meta and making things ever more complicated for the bugs and bots alike. So to help you unlock weapons in Helldivers 2, I've explained the whole system below, including how to get Medals
How to unlock new weapons and guns in Helldivers 2
While Helldivers 2 has a familiar, XP-based levelling system, you unlock new weapons by spending Medals on reward passes called Warbonds – you can take a look at these while on your ship by opening the "Acquisitions" menu (press Square on PlayStation). The prices of weapons varies as Medal costs for all items increases quite a lot on each page of a Warbond. Any weapons you unlock from a Warbond go straight to your Armory on your ship, ready to be equipped on missions.
The ways you get Medals in Helldivers 2 are:
- Completing missions: This is the main way you'll earn Medals while playing, with missions on higher Helldivers 2 difficulties offering more medals and in increasing amounts for each mission successfully completed in an operation.
- Complete Personal Order or Major order challenges: Check your orders every day to see if you've got a new Order. They usually task with with killing Helldivers 2 enemies with a particular weapon or Stratagem, or require you to kill a certain number of a specific enemy faction or enemy type, such as Helldivers 2 Devastators or Helldivers 2 Hunters.
- Find them in Minor Points of Interest: Bunkers, sealed pods, and locked containers all have a chance of containing at least one Medal.
All Helldivers 2 players start with the Liberator assault rifle, Peacemaker pistol, and High Explosive grenade, and get the "Helldivers Mobilize!" Warbond. Owners of the Super Citizen Edition of Helldivers 2 or the Super Citizen Edition upgrade also get the MP-98 Knight sub-machine gun (which can't currently be obtained in any other way) and the Steeled Veterans Warbond.
Importantly, Warbonds have no expiry date, so there's no rush to grind through them as fast as possible. There are a mix of free and premium Warbonds in Helldivers 2, each with their own weapons to unlock. Premium Warbonds, such as Steeled Veterans, cost 1,000 Super Credits. This is the premium currency for Helldivers 2, so it costs real money to buy, but you can also find it in small quantities at Minor Points of Interest in missions, and can unlock 750 Super Credits on the Helldivers Mobilize Warbond available to everyone.
All Helldivers 2 weapons
Along with the starting weapons available to all players, there are lots of other weapons to unlock in Helldivers 2 - if you want to know which weapons you should work towards as soon as possible, we've also got a tier list of the Helldivers 2 best weapons. I've organized the full list below by Warbond and have included the Medal cost for each unlockable weapon, so you know exactly how to get each one:
All Helldivers Mobilize weapons
The game's free, default Warbond is unlocked for no cost at the start, and has a lot more weapons than the other, paid ones.
- G-6 Frag: Low-damage, short-fuse grenade - 2 Medals
- SG-8 Punisher: Pump shotgun – 4 Medals
- P-19 Redeemer: Rapid-fire machine pistol – 5 Medals
- R-63 Diligence: Marksman rifle – 8 Medals
- SMG -37 Defender: Slow-firing sub-machine gun – 15 Medals
- SG-225 Breaker: Rapid-fire, magazine-fed shotgun – 20 Medals
- G-16 Impact: High-damage grenade that explodes on impact – 20 Medals
- LAS-5 Scythe: Laser beam weapon – 30 Medals
- AR-23P Liberator Penetrator: Liberator variant with improved armor penetration – 40 Medals
- R-63CS Diligence Counter Sniper: High-damage Diligence sniper variant – 40 Medals
- G-3 Smoke: Smoke grenade – 25 Medals
- SG-8S Slugger: Slug-firing Punisher variant – 60 Medals
- SG-225SP Breaker Spray&Pray: Drum-magazine Breaker variant – 60 Medals
- PLAS-1 Scorcher: Explosive energy weapon – 75 Medals
All Steeled Veterans weapons (Premium)
The Helldivers 2 Steeled Veterans Warbond doesn't really have a strong theme to its weapons, beyond being generally cool - and with a couple of fire-based toys in there to frighten the bugs.
- P-4 Senator: High-damage revolver – 15 Medals
- AR-23E Liberator Explosive: Slow-firing Liberator variant with explosive ammo – 20 Medals
- G-10 Incendiary: Grenade that explodes with a fireball – 25 Medals
- SG-225IE Breaker Incendiary: High-capacity Breaker variant with incendiary ammo – 60 Medals
- JAR-5 Dominator: High-capacity explosive weapon – 80 Medals
All Cutting Edge weapons (Premium)
The Helldivers 2 Cutting Edge Warbond is all based on advanced tech, so its guns are mostly energy weapons. The Sickle in particular has leapt up to become one of HD2's best guns.
- LAS-16 Sickle: Rapid-fire laser rifle – 20 Medals
- G-23 Stun: EMS grenade that stuns enemies for several seconds – 25 Medals
- SG-8P Punisher Plasma: Punisher variant that fires an exploding plasma ball with each shot – 60 Medals
- LAS-7 Dagger: Low-damage laser pistol – 60 Medals
- ARC-12 Blitzer: Shotgun-like weapon that fires a burst of electricity – 80 Medals
All Democratic Detonation weapons (Premium)
The Helldivers 2 Democratic Detonation Warbond is based around things exploding - and frankly, it's surprising that it took them that long.
- BR-14 Adjudicator: Marksman rifle with medium armor penetration – 20 Medals
- G-123 Thermite: Grenade that sticks to target and generates a damaging, fiery flare for a short period of time – 15 Medals
- R-36 Eruptor: Bolt-action rifle that fires exploding shells – 60 Medals
- CB-9 Exploding Crossbow: A crossbow with explosive bolts, as you might guess – 80 Medals
- GP-31 Grenade Pistol: A sidearm secondary weapon that fires grenades, but needs to be reloaded every time it's fired – 60 Medals
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